Real Estate Email Address Ideas: Get Creative
You did it. You passed the real estate exam, got your license, joined a brokerage, and are ready to start your exciting new career in real estate. But before you can start closing deals, you need something very important – a professional email address. Using an old aol.com isn't going to instill confidence in potential clients. You need an email address that says you're a serious real estate professional. This goes for long-time Realtors, too. If you've been in the business for a while, but are still using an unprofessional email, it's time for an upgrade. Here's how to find an email address that reflects your experience and expertise to help attract more clients. Why Your Email Address Matters as a Real Estate Agent Make a Good First Impression Your email address is often the first glimpse of your business savvy a potential client gets. A generic Gmail address like "[email protected]" screams amateur hour and may turn off high-end clients. An address with your full name and "real estate" in it reassures clients you're the real deal. Be Memorable In a sea of "john316@…" and "soldbyjane@…", a creative, memorable address stands out. Something like "besthomesinalabama@…" or "soldonsunsets@…" gives prospects an easy way to remember you and may even become your brand. Just make sure any cutesy address still contains your name and conveys your professionalism. Track Your Marketing A customized address allows you to track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. For example, you can create "homes4military@…" to use specifically on ads targeting veterans and military families. Any leads from that address show that marketing channel is working. You can then double down on what's effective and drop what's not. Things to Avoid When Choosing a Real Estate Email Address Tacky or Unprofessional Addresses Unless you want to come across as the used car salesperson of real estate, avoid email addresses that scream "shady!" or "amateur hour." Steer clear of addresses like "bestdealsever@…" or "househunterpro@…." You're a professional, so present yourself as one. Unrelated to Real Estate Avoid email addresses that have nothing to do with real estate. While you may have had a previous email address for years, it likely doesn't convey your professional role as a real estate agent. Choose an address that communicates your line of work to prospective clients. Too Long or Complicated Keep it simple! Long, complicated email addresses are difficult to remember and type correctly. Aim for something reasonably short but still meaningful and professional. Examples of Professional Real Estate Email Addresses Your Name The simplest and most professional option is to use your full name, like "[email protected]" or "[email protected]." This straightforward approach conveys a personal touch for connecting with clients and customers. Your Name plus "Properties" or "Realty" Another choice is to include "properties," "realty," or a similar word in your email address, e.g. "[email protected]" or "[email protected]." This helps clearly convey that you work in the real estate industry. Using a domain name related to your brokerage or company further establishes your professional credentials. A Memorable Nickname For some real estate agents, a memorable nickname, like "homes4you" or "househuntress" can work well and be an easy to remember choice for clients and connections. However, nicknames can come across as less professional, so you need to weigh the pros and cons for your particular business and brand image. If you do choose a nickname, be sure to keep it relatively simple while still relating it to real estate. Location or Specialty Incorporating your location, region, or real estate specialty into your email address is another option to consider, e.g. "[email protected]" or "[email protected]." This approach helps define your geographic area of expertise or the types of properties you specialize in. However, if you end up relocating or expanding into other locations or types of real estate, it may require changing your professional email address, which can lead to confusion. Conclusion You see, there are so many options when it comes to real estate email addresses. The key is finding one that aligns with your personal brand and is easy for clients to remember. Don't be afraid to get creative! Just make sure it looks professional. At the end of the day, what really matters is that you're providing value to your audience through helpful content and resources. That's all, if you interested in knowing more and better tips and tricks, check out these articles: Real Estate Slogan Ideas Guide to Real Estate Marketing Terms To view the original article, visit the Realtyna blog.

IAmA real estate agent: 25 Subreddits for you to bookmark
If you've tried to Google anything lately, you've likely noticed that search results are less than stellar these days (as tech journalists and bloggers alike have opined). Looking for a solution, internet users have taken to adding "reddit" to their search terms, e.g. "marketing ideas reddit." That's because Reddit is a massive online public community where users can converse with each other on just about every topic under the sun. It's likely that if you have a question about something, someone on Reddit has already answered it — including questions about real estate! If you haven't visited Reddit before, the site is organized like a forum, and each area of interest has its own message board, or "subreddit." Users subscribe to the subreddits that interest them, and posts from each sub they follow are aggregated into a personalized newsfeed. It's a great way to keep an ear to the ground for the latest buzz on the topics you care about most. But like we said, Reddit is massive. The site is home to 130,000+ active subreddits, so it can be daunting to find the ones that matter to you. Don't worry, though — we're not sending you into the Reddit jungle without a map. To help you get your bearings, we've rounded up 25 real estate related subreddits. You can follow them to keep up with the industry, get advice and ideas, find interesting content to share, and more. Talking with peers and colleagues There are lots of real estate subreddits geared toward consumers. These, however, are just for real estate pros to get together and communicate: /r/Realtors - Connect and chat with your fellow agents here. A great place to get advice from your peers. /r/RealEstateMarketing - Need fresh ideas to market your listings or attract new leads? Visit this subreddit to see what strategies your peers are using, and get advice on what works and what doesn't. Keeping up with the market What's going on with the real estate market today, and what's on the minds of the average real estate consumer? Take the pulse of the industry by visiting these subreddits: /r/REBubble - There's a lot of anxiety about the state of today's real estate market (not that we have to tell you that). Visit this subreddit to talk about the current real estate bubble, see recent news stories, and spot trends. /r/realestate and /r/Real_Estate - These two subreddits are aimed towards consumers. Use them to understand what today's buyers and sellers are thinking, wondering, and worrying about. The questions consumers ask here are wonderful fodder for blog post ideas. Simply find a question you connect with and write an article that answers it. /r/CommercialRealEstate and /r/realestateinvesting/ - If you specialize in working with investors or with commercial properties, try these two subs. You can leverage them in a way similar to the pair above. Both investors and real estate pros frequent these subreddits. /r/RealEstateAdvice - Buying and selling a home is a complicated process, especially for the average consumer who only transacts a handful of times in their life. That makes for a lot of questions about the sales journey. Dive in to offer your advice — or just sit back and get a sense of what real estate consumers (and sometimes other agents!) are asking. /r/RealEstateFinance - Financing is a big part of any real estate transaction. This subreddit offers in-depth conversations on mortgages, interest rates, 1031 exchanges, and more. The lighter side of real estate Nothing relieves the tensions of a work day like a good laugh! Check out these two subreddits for crazy listings, ridiculous real estate photos, absurd home features, and more: /r/RidiculousRealEstate /r/ZillowGoneWild The geekier side of real estate Love both technology and real estate? You'll appreciate these subreddits then. Beware, though — the atmosphere in this neighborhood is unrepentantly geeky and there are a ton of technical terms flying around. /r/RealEstateTechnology /r/HomeAutomation /r/SmartHome Home-centric subreddits If you're looking for content ideas, remember that consumers don't spend much of their lives actively buying or selling a home. They spend most of it living in their home! The following subreddits are a great source of content ideas to share with current homeowners. Visit them to inspiration for your newsletter, social media, or blog: /r/Gardening /r/InteriorDesign /r/ExteriorDesign /r/Landscaping /r/DIY /r/HomeImprovement /r/Homeowners /r/HOA Local real estate subreddits As the saying goes, "All real estate is local." Reddit offers a lot of subforums for location-specific real estate conversations. This is great for networking with both local real estate pros and consumers. Many larger areas already have local real estate subreddits up and running, like /r/FloridaRealEstate, /r/LosAngelesRealEstate, and /r/BayAreaRealEstate, to name a few. To find one for your area, type "real estate [your city or state]" in Reddit's search area. Can't find one? Consider starting your own! Above all, remember that while Reddit isn't the place for self-promotion (that will get you kicked out of most subreddits), it's a great place to network, build your reputation, track trends, and get advice. There you have it — the nickel tour of the best real estate subs that Reddit has to offer. Happy Redditing!

8 Browser Extensions for ChatGPT
ChatGPT is here to stay. However, for now, it's penned up in its environment on OpenAI (and its new iOS app), and anytime you want to use it, you have to schlep over there or open the app. While that's not exactly a hardship, it is inconvenient when you want its help on, say, writing an email or social media post. That's why we've rounded up this list of ChatGPT browser extensions. They bring the power of ChatGPT directly into Gmail and social media, summarize web pages and videos, and so much more. Check out these eight Chrome browser extensions out to see how they can help streamline your real estate business: 1. Talk-to-ChatGPT Using ChatGPT requires writing a lot of prompts. If spoken conversation is more your speed, this extension lets you talk aloud to ChatGPT. Use it to get help with tasks, generate content, and even just have a conversation. 2. YouTube Summary with ChatGPT YouTube videos…sometimes you just don't want to watch them! Whether it's the time commitment or that you're in a place where you don't want to use audio, there are plenty of reasons to go "Ugh…" when encountering a video online. YouTube Summary with ChatGPT brings the efficiency and convenience of skimming an article to video. This extension summarizes videos, giving you the gist without you having to watch the entire thing. 3. Merlin Speaking of summarizing, this extension will summarize not only videos but articles across the web. It can also translate languages and create content for Gmail, Twitter and LinkedIn. 4. ChatGPT Prompt Genius Your ChatGPT output is only as good as the prompts you put into it. The ChatGPT Prompt Genius extension helps you to create better ChatGPT prompts. Consider it your in-browser prompt coach. 5. TweetGPT Still on Twitter? If your efforts there have lagged recently, whip your profile back into shape with TweetGPT. This extension can help you to improve your Twitter engagement by generating creative and interesting tweets and replies. 6. Engage AI for LinkedIn LinkedIn is one of those social media channels that are often neglected in real estate marketing. Neglect no more with this extension, which works right in the comment field of LinkedIn so you can engage your sphere with sparkling, witty remarks! 7. ChatGPT for Google Supercharge your Google searches with ChatGPT for Google. This extension shows you Google search results alongside ChatGPT responses for the same query. And if Google isn't your search engine of choice, no worries—this also works with Bing, DuckDuckGo, and more. 8. ChatGPT Writer When you started in real estate, did you realize how much writing was in store for you? From emails to listing descriptions and various marketing materials, writing skills are always in demand in this career. ChatGPT Writer lets you harness the power of AI to write emails and other messages. It can help you to improve your writing style, generate more engaging content, and save lots and lots of time.

4 Chrome Extensions to Make Your Browser Work for You
Did you know that Google's Chrome browser offers thousands of extensions that you can install to boost your productivity? Like apps for your mobile phone, these add-ons range from social media sharing buttons to extensions that block online distractions so that you can better focus on important tasks. In this video, Realtor Loida Velasquez shares her four MUST-HAVE extensions for real estate. Watch the video above to learn how to put your web browser to work for you! Note: One of Loida's recommended extensions is for her preferred eSignature program, CocoSign. If you don't use that program, don't worry! Other eSignature and transaction management apps, like DocuSign and dotloop, offer similar extensions for their platforms.

Real Estate Hashtags for 2022
Social media has evolved from a place where people socialize to where businesses conduct their daily operations. The realty world isn't left out either -- real estate businesses are now using social media to drive up property sales. The National Association of Realtors reports that 77% of real estate agents actively use social media. In comparison, 47% of Realtors say that social media brings the highest quality leads than other sources. The study also suggests that more than 90% of millennials start their home searches online. This means that social media is a gold mine for any real estate business. To ace the social media concept, you need to have a solid strategy to navigate the social media waters. A great way to get started is by using hashtags. What Are Hashtags? A hashtag is an extra phrase that you can add to your social media posts. A hashtag is usually written with a hash (#) symbol followed by any additional keyword that you want to add. This helps people track exciting and relevant topics. Hashtags give your posts more context and depth. They also make your posts visible to a broader audience. For example, if you post a photo of the sun setting, you can caption it as Sundown. #skybrilliance #sunsetlover, etc. Users who want to find images or posts about sunsets can type the hashtag into the search bar and find the post quickly. When using real estate hashtags, you need to make sure that you tag your posts appropriately so that whenever a potential client types the hashtag, they can find your posts easily. For instance, if you're sharing a photo of an apartment in Washington D.C., the hashtag can read #DCApartments. Any tenant searching online for an apartment in D.C. only needs to type in the hashtag #DCApartments, and they will find your listing. If you aren't sure of which keywords to use for your real estate post, you can refer to the following hashtags to help you out: #home #homesforsale #househunting #apartmenthunting #homesweethome #realestateagentforlife #sold #dreamhome #fixandflip #NYCApartments General Real Estate Hashtag Usage Rules Hashtags are not only applicable to Twitter and Instagram. Hashtagging your post on LinkedIn allows you to connect with other agents. In the same light, hashtagging your posts on Facebook makes you visible to prospective clients on Facebook Marketplace. However, there are limits to the number of hashtags you can use for every social media site. Overusing hashtags makes your post appear spammy to the platform's algorithm. For LinkedIn, you should stick to, at most, five relevant hashtags for every post. Twitter might have started the hashtags feature, but it also has a limit to the number of hashtags you can use. The platform allows users to post a maximum of 280 characters, up from its initial 140, including hashtags. Due to this limitation, you need to ensure your hashtags are relevant to your real estate business and properties. Ideally, you should stick to two hashtags per post. Facebook users don't actively use the hashtag feature. However, at least one hashtag can drive up maximum engagement for business posts on a site. If you want to go all out with as many real estate hashtags as you want, then Instagram is the place for you. This social media platform allows you to post up to 30 hashtags for every post. However, this doesn't mean you should go on a hashtag spree. If you're going to use all 30 hashtags for your post, make them relevant to the real estate business and the home you're selling. Interestingly, Instagram allows you to reverse search some of the hashtags to find prospective clients who are looking for properties. Things to Note 1. Don't Overuse Hashtags Overusing hashtags makes your post look spammy, and may result in low or no engagements. It also makes you look like an amateur who is new to social media. 2. Keep Up with Your Competitors Social media is an ever-evolving business and socializing tool. Every day, new and fruitful hashtags appear, which may be useful in driving engagement your way. Always monitor how your competitors use their hashtags. Keep a close eye on which hashtags they use and which ones receive a lot of user engagement, and implement the ideas you obtain to your advantage. 3. Be Specific General real estate hashtags are useful for driving user engagement. However, to appeal to and find more prospective clients, your hashtags should be specific and targeted. For instance, you can use location-centered hashtags, the home's pet policy and other features to help you appeal to a broader client base. In conclusion Hashtags are a powerful engagement tool when used appropriately. They help bring in more views to your real estate posts and ultimately close deals with prospective clients. Always try to use relevant hashtags to avoid getting spammed. To view the original article, visit the Wise Agent blog.

6 Valuable Tips for Creating Memes that Could Go Viral
Memes have been a popular go-to for fostering online humor. The term "meme" was introduced into our lexicon 35 years ago by Richard Dawkins, a British evolutionary biologist. Dawkins suggested "that ideas could replicate, evolve, and enter popular culture" in the same way genes spread! A meme typically combines an image, photo, or video with a tagline and is usually funny or ironic. Its small file size makes it easy to share and post on social media sites. The prevalence of memes is astounding; Instagram reports that 1 million users share memes every day. Can real estate professionals use memes to share branded content? From Gucci to Jet Blue and Uber, many major companies have used professionally developed memes to promote their brands. And you could, too. However, always remember that humor and irony can be a slippery slope, as what is funny to some can sometimes offend others. That said, memes can be used by real estate professionals to engage your audience and compliment your other marketing and promotional activities. By nature, memes are intended to go viral – or be widely shared. However, a meme's success depends on how well it connects to your sphere of influence: your clients, friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances, and prospective customers. In addition, it needs to be meaningful enough to earn attention. Therefore, when you create a meme, you need to think first about your target audiences and what would compel them to share your meme with others. Here are 6 ways to create memes that have the potential to go viral. Make your memes relatable A vital component to a meme's success is that your audience should instantly understand it. Take the time to review what your friends and family are posting and sharing on their social channels. Do you see a repetitive theme or subject? Is what they are mainly sharing related to popular culture? Do they share humor? Do they share memes? What can you discern about their core values? What content do they appear to be passionate about, and what themes resonate with them? This understanding can help you create ideas that are more relatable to your audience. Evoke an emotional response A meme should generate an emotional reaction, whether it provokes their curiosity, makes them feel elated or even gets a chuckle out of them. When creating a meme as part of your marketing efforts, think about the kind of emotion you want to appeal to with your meme content. It takes an instant and significant emotional response for a meme to be widely shared. Therefore, playing to your audience's emotions is needed to compel them to share your content digitally with others. Use powerful visuals Memes are essentially rooted in visuals. The memes that are shared the most are the ones that make a powerful first impression. Therefore, it's essential to keep the visual image you use simple and contain a healthy balance of information, offering hope or humor. Super short videos or animated gifs also help earn consumer attention if you pick the right content. For ideas on memes, check out KnowYourMeme, a searchable internet meme database. Take advantage of online tools While you can use software programs such as Adobe Photoshop to create your memes, other online tools are available that simplify the process of creating a meme. For example, Imgflip is a popular online meme generator that offers a variety of images to use and allows you to add text to the photos. You can also customize the text's font, which is often a significant component of a viral meme. Canva offers free and paid accounts and is another popular online image editing tool that provides plenty of templates to make memes in just a few clicks. It also allows you to download memes for uploading in various file formats, including PNG and JPEG. Share memes at the right times A critical part of viral marketing is timing. That means you must be up to date with the latest trends that currently are engaging your audience. If you find a locally relatable hot topic, you should strike while the iron is hot and create a meme that relates to that topic. Your network is more likely to share your meme broadly when the subject is topical. Over-posting – creating too many memes in a short of a period – can work against you and reflect poorly on your brand. That's because it's not easy to create memes that go viral. Branding your meme This can be tricky, as most real estate marketing tends to brand its content aggressively. For a meme to go viral, however, subtlety is the key to acceptance. You can build in a small source line and sometimes even a tiny logo, but it can't take away from the meme, or that will defeat its purpose. Remember that even when you create and share unbranded memes, being known for creating and sharing positive memes reflects positively on your personal brand. Creating ironic or humourous memes that promote a positive idea related to the real estate business can be an excellent fit for your marketing strategy. Whenever you need assistance with any digital difficulty you are experiencing, remember that the experts at Tech Helpline are only a click, call or email away. To view the original article, visit the Tech Helpline blog.

How to Create the Perfect Email Address for Real Estate Agents
An email address can say a lot about a real estate agent. Sometimes it's the only form of contact they'll have with real estate leads. So it is important to look professional and also make it easy to remember. Here are some tips to follow. 1. You Need to Use the Word 'Realtor' in the Correct Context There are plenty of bad examples that we would advise against when using the word "Realtor." According to NAR guidelines, you can only use the word when it is coupled with your first and last name. So [email protected] is okay. @DoeJaneRealtor works too. [email protected], while great for branding, goes against NAR guidelines. 2. Make It Easy for Prospects to Remember If you can, try to craft your real estate email address without numbers or characters. This includes "_" and ".", as those with a touch screen will have to access a separate keyboard to type that symbol in. Homebuyers are already stressed enough, so make it easy on them with a simple email address that is either your name or your branding. 3. Not All Email Services Are Equal After years of working in the real estate industry, I've seen plenty of agents utilize free email services such as AOL, Yahoo, and Gmail for their business communications. We would strongly advise against using AOL and Yahoo emails primarily for their high likelihood to filter emails into spam inboxes. Gmail, however, is perfectly acceptable. 4. Use Company Branded Emails if You Need to Company branded emails are great to establish your credibility before they even open up the email. There is a certain level of legitimacy—if a real estate prospect receives an email from a person that is part of recognizable brand, they are more likely to open it if they are in the market to buy or sell a home. The biggest caveat to using an email address provided by your company is that it gets turned off if you ever leave your company. 5. Use a Self-Branded Email Address These emails with vanity domain names are probably your best option. They usually will cost a monthly or annual fee. However, it helps keep brand consistency for your internet presence. It makes it much easier for a real estate lead to find you online if your website address, email address, and social media usernames are the same. To view the original article, visit the Zurple blog.

Increase Your Online Success: Top Reasons to Have a Business Email Address
Your digital presence speaks loudly to how well you are perceived. As an entrepreneur and real estate professional, having a business email is part of the cost of operating your business. Many real estate agents will place their priorities on creating a website, brochures, direct mail pieces and business cards. Then, the momentum stops when it is time to include a paid business email address. A well thought-out business email address serves you in many ways. Your business email address can increase your credibility, as well as your email open and response rates. A business email address also improves brand recognition, decreases unsubscribes, and more easily passes through spam filters.

Dealing with Malware
Challenges such as spam, malware, and viruses can wreak havoc on business. We urge you to take action to help ensure the internet is safe for all. Here's what you need to know. What is malware? Malware is short for "malicious software," an umbrella term for describing viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, ransomware, dishonest adware, rootkits and other unwanted or harmful computer software. These types of computer programs are designed to reduce your productivity; cause damage to your computer, server or network; or steal information that can be used to access highly sensitive accounts, either business or personal.

[Best of 2019] 19 Real Estate Memes and GIFs that Will Make You Smile
We're continuing an annual tradition of counting down our top 10 articles of the year. The following article was originally published in May and is #5 in our countdown. See #6 here. Looking for some fun real estate memes and GIFs to share with your coworkers and clients? Here are 19 animated real estate memes for you to share with your clients. Memes and GIFs travel through social media and are great to break up the listing, closing, and open house posts on Instagram and Facebook. Plus, many of these show the all too common experiences we all share being an agent. You have to have a sense of humor to stay motivated in real estate. You are free to share any GIFs on this page. To download a photo, simply right click on your mouse and select 'Save Image As.' Upload the GIF to Facebook as you would a regular image. Once it's uploaded and published on your page, the GIF will move automatically.

How to Create a Powerful Online Reputation
What Is a Powerful Online Reputation? According to NAR's Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, when asked what the deciding factor was in choosing their real estate professional, home sellers prioritized the agent's reputation over other factors. As defined by Merriam Webster, reputation is your "overall quality or character as seen or judged by people in general" and the "recognition by other people of some characteristic or ability," such as being clever or good at problem-solving. In today's world, the impression of your reputation often begins online. Even with personal, word-of-mouth referrals, people are likely to hear good things about you and then go online to validate that impression. So you have to ask yourself: What are the qualities I want to be recognized for and how do I make that part of the impression I give online?

What's the Safest Way to Manage Your Passwords?
It may be the biggest Catch-22 of technology: password protection keeps your data safe. After all, one in five Americans says they have experienced a compromise of an online account. But to be genuinely safe experts recommend using different, highly complex passwords: a mix of random letters, numbers, and characters. However, that approach makes these passwords nearly impossible for most people to remember!

19 Real Estate Memes and GIFs that Will Make You Smile
Looking for some fun real estate memes and GIFs to share with your coworkers and clients? Here are 19 animated real estate memes for you to share with your clients. Memes and GIFs travel through social media and are great to break up the listing, closing, and open house posts on Instagram and Facebook. Plus, many of these show the all too common experiences we all share being an agent. You have to have a sense of humor to stay motivated in real estate. You are free to share any GIFs on this page. To download a photo, simply right click on your mouse and select 'Save Image As.' Upload the GIF to Facebook as you would a regular image. Once it's uploaded and published on your page, the GIF will move automatically.

Beyond CCPA and GDPR: New Digital Privacy Developments that Realtors Need to Know
We recently talked about the new California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and its impact on the real estate industry in the United States. CCPA is the first domestic state regulation after the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and although CCPA isn't as far-reaching as GDPR, it will mean a change in the way real estate agents in the US handle and manage personal identifiable information for their clients and leads. Unlike the GDPR, CCPA is based in this country and, much like GDPR, has inspired other new privacy regulations in other states that are reflective of CCPA and the GDPR.

Top 10 Tips to Finally Conquer Your Email Inbox
At this moment in time, how many emails are in your inbox? Today, one woman said 20,000 emails, and she just ignores most of them. Twenty-thousand may sound extreme, yet many people have thousands of emails in their inbox. We are talking about the number of total emails sitting there, not just the read ones. An attorney I work with is completely up to date with all his emails. His wife had only 22 emails in her inbox. That is a rarity. As business people, and in our personal lives, the number of e-mails we get each day can be daunting. A disorganized inbox can hurt our business and productivity.

Google Your Way to Saving Time
We most often think of Google as a search engine. But Google has become so much more. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are making Google smarter. These advanced technologies also are giving Google predictive analytical ability. That means Google is starting to anticipate what you want before you may even realize you want it! What all of this can mean to a real estate agent is that Google can save you time. Learning Google search shortcuts alone can save you a lot of time. Learning some of the different shortcuts you can enter into that little blank box under the Google logo should delight you. After all, Google may be the most underrated tech tool on an agent's smartphone or laptop in terms of being a real time saver. Let's look at the most frequently used Google search shortcuts you can enter in the Google search box for speedier answers. Google syntax Just like there are shortcut keystrokes on your keyboard to expedite a command to tell your computer to do something, here are some of the most popular and time-saving shortcut commands for Google search you can enter into that little blank box – or in your browser if Google is your default search engine. 1. Use quote marks (") to search for an exact phrase or sentence. You can limit your search and make it more precise by using quotations. If you are looking for the "best laptop 2018," by using quotes, you will narrow your search to new laptops with the best ratings. 2. Use the words and, or (and, or) to connect search phrases: Adding an additional phrase in quotes with an "and" in the middle will connect the two phrases and yield more precise results. For example, "best laptop 2018" and "compare price" will deliver only content that also provides price comparison. If you add an "or" to two phrases, you can get results that consider similar but not exact words. For example, you could search "best laptop 2018" or "best laptops 2018" to make sure you get results that include both the singular phrase and the plural phrase. 3. Use a minus (-) to ignore a word or website. If you are searching for a video, but don't want to search YouTube, you can search "babies laugh video -YouTube.com" and your results will be YouTube free. 4. Use an at sign (@) to search on social media: If you want to find that viral tweet you have heard about or to find that real estate article someone posted on social media, Google can help you find it faster. If you want to focus on a single social media channel, add that word, i.e. "Facebook" or "Twitter." 5. Use a pound sign (#) to search for hashtag items on social media: If you want to find ways or ideas to improve your hashtag usage, look at what others are doing. Search items such as #tiptuesday, #throwbackthursday, or #selfiesaturday. 6. Use an asterisk (*) for an unknown word search: How do you save time searching for crucial features about your state or city you want to include in a description about your area? Try this search: "largest * in Orlando" or "Most expensive * in Orlando" or "* schools in Orlando." 7. Use two periods (..) to search for a range of numbers: This can come in handy, for example, if you are trying to find a new digital video camera and you have a price range in mind. You can search "video camera $100 .. $250." 8. Use the word info and a colon (info:) to get the lowdown on any website: If there is a company you need to know about, say you are about to use their service or have a client that works for them, or your client has a personal website. Here's a quick way to get all the crucial links about them instantly. Just search "info: TechHelpline.com" and you'll get the key links you need all at once! 9. Use the word related and a colon (related:) to see what others say about a firm: Doing research on a company or product can take time, so this is a great shortcut. Just search with "related: formsimplicity.com" to see what others have said about the firm and the product as links related to the firm will be displayed. 10. Use the word site and a colon (site:) to search solely within that website: The fastest way to search within a single website is to put a site: in front of the terms you want to search. Instead of trying to determine if that website has a search feature – or if it works well – use the power of Google to save time. BONUS: Use the power of Google Advanced Search: This is one link you are going to want to bookmark on your web browser if you haven't already: google.com/advanced_search. It's probably the most significant time saver Google offers in a single link. Here are a few ways you can narrow your searches to save time: Search for a specific type of documents: Look just for PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, Word docs and more Search for content in one particular language, and not only English: Google searches more than 40 specific languages, from Afrikaans to Vietnamese. Search by country/region Search by time: You can limit your search as recent to something that was posted within the last 24 hours, day, week, month or year. Limit your search to where the information you want appears on the page: Google can search only the title of pages, or just the body text or the URL of the page You can mix and match any of these parameters for your searches. You can use any of these parameters, or a mixture of them, to search within a single domain/website! Power of Google As you can see, using Google solely for its search engine capabilities can provide an agent a huge productivity boost when you know how to use it best. Don't forget to review our other Google article from last year, "10 Things You Probably Didn't Know Google Could Do For You" to discover more time-saving tips! To view the original article, visit the Tech Helpline blog.

How to Snag Your .realestate Website Domain Before Your Competition
A new website domain extension is set to debut next week, and Realtors looking for a memorable web address with plenty of SEO potential should take notice. Website names with a .realestate domain extension go on pre-sale Tuesday, Sept. 18. That means Realtors will be able to purchase domains like Chattanooga.RealEstate or SmithandBrooks.RealEstate.

The 5 Tech Tips You Can't Live Without
Let's face it: our lives are now tech centric. Think about this: In 2011, only 35 percent of American households had smartphones, but that number is now 77 percent! And three-in-four Americans ages 50-64 now own smartphones, a jump of 16 percent in just one year. The day in the life of a Realtor® relies upon dependable technology, and dependable technology needs upgrading. So, what are the must-do technology tips that every real estate agent and broker needs to protect themselves and their businesses? We turned to our experts at Florida Realtors® Tech Helpline, the real estate industry's #1 tech support service, created by Realtors® for Realtors®. Collectively, our technical advisors have over 250 years of technical knowledge, and they specialize in supporting real estate brokers and agents. Here are their Top 5 Tech Tips:

How (and Why) Agents Can Use Gmail for Real Estate
Whether you love it or hate it, every business needs email. It's easy to set up your email account and call it done, but, like all technology, email is evolving and changing. The account you set up 20, 10, or even five years ago may no longer meet your business' needs. Check out some of the things Gmail can do below and then ask yourself, "Does my email do this for me?" What is Gmail? Gmail is, very simply, "email by Google." Gmail integrates with your other Google suite tools, making it easy to preview new documents, share photos, accept calendar events, and more. Why use it? In addition to making it easy to send, search for, and check emails, Gmail automatically sorts your email according to subject line and has a highly effective spam filter, user-friendly IM services, 15 GB of free storage, extra storage available at very reasonable rates, and the ability to label, color code, and sort email and contacts. Where can I get it? Android iOS Computer Browser

Choosing a Not-Com Domain Name to Set Your Business Apart
In the early days of the internet, IP addresses—long strings of numbers separated by periods—were used to identify websites. As more and more people took to the internet, a simpler, easier method of finding a website was designed: domain names. When the first domain names were released around 1985, website owners could choose from .com, .net, and .org. Since that time, those top-level domain extensions have remained popular, making it hard for new businesses to find great, unclaimed domain names. Luckily, recognizing the continually growing demand for domain names, new possibilities were (and continue to be) introduced. Businesses can now choose one of the original .com, .net, or .org domain extensions or one of the newer ones, which include but aren't limited to, .site, .biz, .blog, .services, .ltd, .online, .town, and (perfect for the real estate industry) .homes. Creating a Domain Strategy With so many domain extensions available, business owners aren't limited to a single domain name. While your primary domain name may be BuyNC.homes, you may decide to purchase a secondary domain name for your investor clients under lucrative.holdings or one for your rental clients under RentAtlantaGA.homes. Creating a domain name for each of your primary niches can boost your appeal to those buyers and sellers. After all, why should someone looking to sell their beach home go to a website whose domain is more buyer-oriented when they could use a site like sellbeach.homes? Each of these names can then be used in various marketing materials and forwarded back to niche-specific pages on your primary website.

5 Email Tools to Make Follow-Ups Easier
Do you remember the days when email was in its infancy? Do you remember the days when you spent more time checking your answering machine and fax machine than your inbox? While this may have been a simpler time in some ways, things have changed over the years. In today's world, email remains the number one form of professional communication. It's common to have a love-hate relationship with your inbox. On the plus side, you enjoy the fact that you can communicate in a fast and efficient manner, all without having to jump on the phone or meet in person. Conversely, there's no denying the fact that "inbox overload" is a real thing. Some people become so overwhelmed that it negatively impacts the way they manage their inbox and how they follow-up on important conversations. Fortunately, there are a variety of email tools that can help you get organized and stay organized. Here are several of the top tools that make email follow-up easier. 1. FollowUp.cc If Gmail is your email provider of choice, FollowUp.cc is a feature packed tool that can save you time and keep your inbox organized. Top features include: Schedule follow-up reminders (these cancel automatically if you receive a response before your scheduled reminder). Add notes and tags for any contact. View your conversation history to ensure that you take the right steps in the future. FollowUp.cc is lightweight, easy to use, and powerful.

NAR Launches Single Sign-On for All Members
NAR launched new a new single sign-on process that became mandatory for all members on Tuesday. The intent of the new process is to simplify the login process for Realtors. With single sign-on, members will be able to access all NAR owned web properties with just one user name and password, eliminating the need to remember login credentials for multiple profiles. To make things even easier, NAR now allows members to link their login information to their Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter accounts. That means Realtors click the social media icon of their choice at login and bypass entering the user name and password altogether. The change in sign-on process isn't the only change at NAR's website. The organization recently changed the address of their site from Realtor.org to NAR.Realtor. You may not have noticed, though--go to any page on Realtor.org and you'll be smoothly redirected to the indentical page on the NAR.Realtor domain at blink-and-you'll-miss-it speed. To learn more about single sign-on, including linking to your social media account, registering, and more, check out the video above.

Email Etiquette for the Real Estate Professional
We all know emails are now one of the primary ways to communicate. Over the past couple of years, we have seen a gradual increase in electronic mail usage over phone calls or actual meetings. I receive tons of email every year and I saw some stark difference between emails from different people. Some are extremely professional and some are super casual, but what is the best practice? Here are some quick tips on how to improve your email etiquette. 1. Greet It's surprising how many people actually forget to add a cursory greeting at the beginning and end of a message. It's important to start a conversation with pleasantries—a hi, hello and thank you will go a long way. Remember, it's not just a real estate deal, it's a relationship. 2. Know your CC and BCC Always take time before replying to an email. Understand what CC and BCC mean and use these features if necessary. If you are sending a mass email, make sure to use the BCC option in your email—especially when you are sending out newsletters or flyers.

Best of 2016: 7 Google Chrome Extensions for Real Estate Agents
We're continuing an annual tradition of counting down our top 10 articles of the year. The following article was originally published back in March and is #2 in our countdown. See #3 here. Want to get more out of your online experience? Put your web browser to work for you! Google's Chrome browser offers thousands of extensions that you can install to boost your productivity. Like apps for your mobile phone, these add-ons range from social media sharing buttons to extensions that block online distractions so that you can better focus on important tasks. Ready to give your productivity a boost? These seven Chrome extensions can help turn you into a web power user! 1. Write Space This extension lets you write and edit text right from your browser. Write Space's design is simple and clean, a lack of clutter that makes it easier to focus on writing rather than outside distractions. (The app's creators suggest turning your browser to full-screen mode to reduce distractions even further!) Our favorite feature of Write Space is how it automatically saves everything as you type, so you never have to worry about accidentally losing your work. It's convenient, too. Rather than booting up Word or another program to write down notes, just open this extension in a new browser tab and start typing! 2. Awesome Screenshot Have you ever needed to take a screenshot of an entire webpage or document--including the parts that you'd have to scroll down to see? Awesome Screenshot to the rescue! This extension lets you easily capture all kinds of screenshots, from the whole page to a small selection. The best part about Awesome Screenshot is that it lets you annotate any of your screenshots with text, shapes, highlights, and more.

Forget Inbox Zero. Be an Inbox Hero with Boomerang for Gmail
For most agents, Inbox Zero is unattainable. Between automated listing emails, lead alerts and messages sent from clients, title and mortgage partners and more, you likely receive more emails than you can possibly pay attention to each day. That's where Boomerang comes in. Boomerang's main functionality is to help you put messages in a queue so you can read and respond to them at the right time. But Boomerang doesn't just help you cut through the clutter of email, it also helps you get focused on proper follow-up and makes you more likely to receive replies back. Here are three ways you can leverage Boomerang to get ahead in your real estate business. "Snooze" the emails that you don't need to answer right away There are probably a few times a day — or even a dozen times a day — when you react to the "ding" of your inbox, only to find that it's a general newsletter from your MLS or an invitation to a Chamber of Commerce meeting. What if those "time-insensitive" emails could be programmed to come back to your email at a time when you're more likely to respond? With Boomerang, you can do just that. By simply clicking one button, you can tell the utility to bring a message back to the top of your inbox at a specific time in the future. Get ahead with better inbox management Consider setting up one or two hours a week that are dedicated to managing these less important emails. If your weekly sales meeting is at 9am on a Tuesday, schedule these emails to Boomerang back on Tuesday at 7:45am. Get in a bit early, fire up the coffeemaker and hit reply or delete until you've achieved Inbox Zero on your long-term response messages.

The 6 Best Chrome Extensions for Real Estate Pros
We all love a good time saver, right? And Chrome extensions are often the be-all, end-all when it comes to finding a quick hack during your daily internet browsing or time spent online for work. For those who may not quite be in the know—don't worry, it's nothing you can't remedy in a quick three minutes! Are you using Chrome as your browser? If so, then great, you're on the right track. If not, go ahead and download it. It's Google's excellent Internet browser and probably one of your better options out there. As for the Chrome extensions, think of them as a free little widget that sits at the top of your browser and completely enhances your Internet browsing activities. Currently, my favorite extension is Honey, which finds discount codes for you and automatically tries them out when you go to check out from your online shopping spree. I've saved quite a bit of money through it—and that's just one of the many, many extensions out there. Now, as a real estate agent, your business may not quite benefit from the usage of Honey, but we're sure that there are a few extensions that could, in fact, help your productivity and more throughout your day. Before you head to the Chrome Web Store and go wild with downloading every great extension, take a look through our list and use it to create your personalized, curated web-browsing experience! Check out the 6 best chrome extensions for real estate professionals: We know, there's an epidemic when it comes to how distracted we get throughout the day. Whether we're checking in on social media, or chatting with our colleagues, somedays it feels near impossible to be productive at all. Thirty-one percent of American employees report that online activities like shopping, blogging and checking in on Facebook hinders them from being productive. With the addition of these Chrome extensions, you may be thinking that we're just adding to the clutter of your already very cluttered desktop, but we promise that these will help you completely streamline a lot of your daily tasks, and maybe even improve your grammar as well!

The HTML Guide for Real Estate Agents Over 40
One of my favorite classes back in college was on HTML (hypertext markup language); it was sort of a mashup of an art class and a writing class. I also liked it because it was one of very few classes that didn't require me to purchase a $300 textbook. Everything we covered was (and still is) available for free on w3schools.com. So if you want to master HTML, go check that out. Here, we're just covering the basics that will give you more control over your content. Finding the HTML box: Most websites and blogs will have a button in your edit window that will let you switch to HTML. This button will usually be in one of the corners of your editor. If you have a Homes.com website, your HTML button is on the bottom left. Here's what you need to know: The greater than and less than symbols (also called angle brackets) should enclose your HTML. Without them, your code will show up as text on your website instead of editing your site. Inside the brackets, you put the "tag" for what you want to accomplish. Most of the time, you only need special HTML tags like bold or italics in part of your code rather than on your whole page. To indicate where you want your formatting to end, for most HTML tags you just add a / in front of the tag. For example, this: is the tag for a new paragraph, so you use the following to end a paragraph: Example:

Why Internet Explorer Should Be Your Old Browser
The real estate industry today is Internet dependent. Agent and company websites, company intranets, MLS access, and back office systems all require agents and brokers to go online to manage these resources. So must the American homebuyer, too, as more than 90 percent of all real estate home searches begin online. Perhaps the most important software tool that enables the Internet is the one that's also taken for granted: your Internet browser. For years, real estate agents' favorite browser has been Internet Explorer from Microsoft. Unless you were a Mac user, when you bought your PC, Internet Explorer was automatically your browser and the vast majority of agents simply never switched. Additionally, many MLSs were only compatible with Internet Explorer, adding to many agents' reliance on IE. Even with the sun setting of support for Internet Explorer's older versions – and IE 11 being replaced by Edge as the Windows 10 default browser – agents have been tentative to switch to a different browser. According to NAR's Realtor Technology Report, while the use of Internet Explorer dropped from 50 percent to 38 percent in the most recent study, it was still the number one browser for agents, with Google's Chrome coming in at 32 percent, Firefox at 16 and Apple's Safari at 9 percent. However, among the American public, Chrome is the most popular browser, according to a 2015 Federal Government report. But the Internet is changing so fast that if you are still using Internet Explorer, especially an older version, you should ask yourself, "Is it time to switch?"

Why You Need to Google Yourself
It's no secret: Long before new clients or referrals pick up the phone to call you, they research you online. They Google you, look at social media, read online reviews... But here's what you might not know: Today, 88% of people trust online reviews more than personal recommendations from friends, family, or colleagues. Not too long ago, the referral process was much different! You'd work with a customer, they'd be happy, they'd refer someone, and that person would call you. Now they Google you long before they contact you. They want to make sure that what their friend said about them is, in fact, true. Do you know what your online identity is and what it says about you? You have an online identity whether you've taken the time to create a purposeful one or not. To find out, Google yourself! What do the results say about you? Chances are, if you haven't taken the time to shape what comes up on Google, the results will misrepresent you in one or another. So what can you do about it?

New .Homes Website Domains Now Available to Real Estate Pros
Is the .com domain name you really want already taken? Never fear, there's a new domain extension in town, and it's full of SEO potential for real estate practitioners. The sunrise registration period opened just last Monday for the new .Homes top-level domain. "Sunrise" registration is a limited window of time that allows trademark holders to purchase .Homes domains that match their marks before registration is opened to the general public. That means if you've trademarked the name of your real estate team or practice--Central Coast Realty™, for example--you can now reserve CentralCoastRealty.Homes so that your company's name isn't taken by somebody else. The Sunrise period runs through May 6. You can learn more here. However, the domain names with the highest SEO potential are up for grabs on May 12, when open registration starts. Because registration will then no longer be restricted to trademark holders, agents and brokers can buy names that reflect their area, like Boston.Homes. The reason a domain like this has so much SEO potential is because it matches the phrases that consumers are likely to search for, e.g. Boston homes or Boston homes for sale. .Homes domain names are only available to professionals who serve the residential real estate industry. This includes agents, brokers, mortgage professionals, appraisers, property managers, builders, home insurers, MLSs, and associations. Dominion Enterprises, the operator of Homes.com, is the exclusive registrar of .Homes domain names. To learn more, visit domains.homes.

Why Agents Should Never Use Personal Email
I saw a news article recently about why real estate agents should use their personal email addresses. The article talked about the 10,000 selfish reasons why it benefits the Realtor®. It was a grand display of the underbelly of self-centered real estate professionals. I am here to tell you that using a personal email for real estate business is STUPID and perhaps illegal. The communications between a real estate agent and a consumer are subject to the real estate laws in your state. They are communications that happen under the supervision of the agent’s real estate broker. They are covered by the insurances held by the real estate broker. They are subject to the Realtor Code of Ethics if you are a Realtor. Last year, there were multiple instances of emails getting hacked. In many cases, consumer information was compromised. In some cases, earnest money instructions were hijacked and in once case, $250,000 was stolen. Guess what? If you are a real estate agent who got hacked or had earnest money stolen, you are in deep ****. You probably violated the broker’s independent contractor policy that you signed. If you did, your broker does not need to help you. In fact, if your actions cause harm to the brokerage brand, and you could be liable for those damages.

Best of 2015: How to Convert a Document to PDF in 3 Easy Steps
We're continuing an annual tradition of counting down our top 10 articles of the year. The following article was originally published back in August and is #4 in our countdown. See #5 here. Need a quick, easy way to turn a document into a .PDF without having to pay for conversion software? You're in luck! If you have a Google account, you already have access to a free online tool that makes it a snap to change files to the format you need. (If you don't have an account, you can sign-up here.) One of the most underappreciated features of Google Drive is how it lets you convert documents to different file formats like rich text, plain text, Open Office, PDF, Microsoft Word, and more. It's a simple hack that anyone can do in just a couple of minutes. Here's how. Step #1: Upload a File for Conversion First, upload the document that you want to convert to Google Drive. To do this, click the orange New button and select File upload. Then browse to the file on your hard drive you want to convert and hit Open.

Resources to Maximize Your ROI in 2016
In his appearance on a recent Secrets of Top Selling Agents webinar, Jimmy Mackin, co-founder of Curaytor.com, shared these great sites you can use to grow your business in 2016. Check out the best of team management, lead gathering, and branding ideas below! BestAboutPages.com has examples of some of the best "about" pages on the internet. Everyone in real estate is saying the same thing on their about page – take a look at these to get inspiration on how you can infuse your about page with personality to help it stand out. Theknot.com, a hub of wedding planning, may seem like a strange place to go for real estate, but here you can search for professional photographers. Mackin suggests that you "get professional photography of your team, get professional photography of your area. You will reuse it over, and over, and over, and over again." Slack.com is a team communication and messaging app. To help minimize the time lapse in business communication that can turn what should be a quick communication into hours of back and forth texting and calling. Mackin uses Slack because "it allows you to set up a very simple portal where you can communicate with your entire team in real time." Upwork.com and thehiredpens.com are two sites you can use to outsource your copywriting. Mackin recommends you start by getting a professional bio and 'about' page made.

How to Drive More Traffic to Your Real Estate Website
Converting leads in the online environment is not an easy thing to achieve. It is not just a matter of bringing people to your website and letting things run their course, although that is the place where you must start. Ok, let's assume that you have a decent real estate website as far as functionality and the visual side are concerned. If you are experiencing low traffic to your website, it means that you haven't taken enough time and made a good enough effort to reach people and get them interested in what you have to offer. Today we are going to discuss what are some of the right steps (and some of the wrong ones as well) to pulling in a satisfactory number of people to your real estate website. Identifying the Ideal Traffic When it comes to website traffic, you have to think ahead. Getting the numbers up is no big deal. You can pay for traffic and bring your stats to a satisfactory level. However, if you want to achieve something more than just having numbers for show, you will need to focus on finding the right traffic. Identifying parameters like age group, vocations, geographical area and other relevant factors will help you focus on getting traffic that will have a better chance of converting to paying customers later on.

How to Convert a Document to PDF in 3 Easy Steps
Need a quick, easy way to turn a document into a .PDF without having to pay for conversion software? You're in luck! If you have a Google account, you already have access to a free online tool that makes it a snap to change files to the format you need. (If you don't have an account, you can sign-up here.) One of the most underappreciated features of Google Drive is how it lets you convert documents to different file formats like rich text, plain text, Open Office, PDF, Microsoft Word, and more. It's a simple hack that anyone can do in just a couple of minutes. Here's how. Step #1: Upload a File for Conversion First, upload the document that you want to convert to Google Drive. To do this, click the orange New button and select File upload. Then browse to the file on your hard drive you want to convert and hit Open.

A Look at the Marketing Opportunities .REALTOR Offers
In the early days of the internet, there were just seven top-level-domains (TLDs); .com, .org, .edu, .net., .int, .gov and .mil. These were put in place to provide some distinction between the types of websites a user was visiting (e.g., commercial, organization, education, etc.). Now, in 2015, there are more than 1,300 TLDs, including the new .REALTOR domain, which brings a unique and a powerful marketing opportunity to REALTORS®. Technical Background: In 2014, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) released the .REALTOR domain to NAR. Today, NAR is in good company with hundreds of major brands and categories that have also received approval for a top-level domain, like .tv, .bank, .Google, .Canon, .Honda, .Marriott, and .MLB. View the latest list of delegated TLDs. Like other major brands and professions that are unleashing hidden branding potential with new TLDs, REALTORS® are differentiating themselves from other real estate professionals online. .REALTOR is a short, distinctive domain with a focused extension that lets consumers instantly know they've found a trusted source for real estate. The Marketing Opportunity: As a REALTOR®, it's imperative to know how TLDs will impact your web presence and online marketing. As more TLDs become mainstream, the Internet is being divided into categories. This makes it easier for consumers to navigate the online world and locate exactly what they need. Sooner than we think, the widely recognized .com domain will be viewed as dated and generic.

Create Your Own Real Estate Memes
Love them or hate them, real estate memes are great for engagement. Whether you work at a fun, family-oriented real estate agency or a high-end property management company, carefully selected memes can be a lighthearted way to interact with clients, colleagues and referral partners. You may choose to share them on your website, on social media channels, in an email or even via text. Of course, finding just the right thing for the right audience can be tough. The good news is that it's very easy to create your own real estate memes! How to create your own memes It's simple! You can either start from scratch or use an existing, recognized meme and add your own text. Starting from scratch: If you want to create a meme using your own image, perhaps of life at your office or a funny home detail, it's as easy as snapping a pic with your phone and opening an app. There are many free, meme-creating apps out there you can download right onto your smartphone or tablet. Then you can use any photo in your gallery to create your perfect meme. We like Meme Generator for Android devices and MeMatic for iOS.

How to Set up IFTTT for Lead Generation
Have you checked out If This Then That (IFTTT) to use as real estate technology? Basically you can create automatic actions to be performed over pretty much anything you could want or think of. Want to save all those houses in a Google doc automatically? Check. Want an email every time someone tweets about you? Check. You can even program it to open the garage door every time you get home without pressing any buttons. How about getting an email every time someone is moving to your city? Or getting alerts sent straight to your phone when a certain type of home pops up for sale in your area? Can we say sign me up for more home sales? This is lead generation FOR FREE. This is some pretty handy real estate technology. IFTTT will save you a lot of time while actually giving you legitimate leads you can follow up on. Here is your step-by-step guide to more home sales: 1. Download IFTTT It's available on Android, iOS, and your computer. 2. Sign up for your free account. 3. Open it up Browse "recipes" that are already made. They have a LOT you can choose from.

11 Ways to Outsmart Security Threats in 2015
If last year is any indication, security will be continue to be a big topic in 2015. For real estate, the biggest story of the year was undoubtedly the tragic death of Realtor Beverly Carter, which ignited concerns about personal safety across the industry. Other incidents, like the cyber attack that took down Realtor.com's website for several days, underscored the increased level of threats witnessed in 2014. It's not all doom and gloom, though, and there are plenty of ways you can educate and protect yourself in the year ahead. To give you a leg up, we've compiled a list of resources to keep you and your data safe in 2015. Smart Web Surfing I'm going start this with a plea: If you're using Internet Explorer, please stop. Stop now. Not only is IE subject to security vulnerabilities and frequent attacks, it also offers an inferior browsing experience. Honestly, the best thing you can do for your online safety is to consider switching to an alternative like Chrome or FireFox. Be sure to stay current with all application updates, too! Once you've got your browser squared away, these tips point the way to safer surfing: 10 Social Media Safety Tips Keep Your Real Estate Clients Safe with These Internet Safety Tips

Responding to Client Emails: 3 Tips and Tricks
Email: we all have it, and most of us could use a little help when it comes to controlling our inboxes. After all, the catch about email is that it works around the clock, even when we don't. The good news is that clients and contacts have a place to send messages 24/7. The bad news is that keeping up with all those emails can feel like an epic undertaking. (Sometimes we just wish our email would take a few days off.) In an effort to help make your workday easier, here are our top three tips and tricks for responding to client emails. 1. Create a cheat sheet for faster responses. One of the biggest complaints the industry hears from real estate consumers is that they just aren't getting the responsiveness they want from the agents they are reaching out to. While we think this perception can be skewed by a number of factors, it doesn't hurt to try to be the agent that does respond in a timely fashion. To that end, we recommend developing a handful of standard replies or one-liners you can easily copy and paste from when you're in a hurry. You'll find it extra helpful when you're at a loss for words, and it really cuts down on your proofreading. Many agents get the same type of emails over and over again – inquiries, charity and event invitations, referral requests, etc. Think about the top 10 or so emails that you seem to write over and over again and create a Word doc with prepared responses that you can edit slightly or use as is. You can often pull examples from your sent folder.

Automate Your Business with zipForm® Plus and Zapier
Most people have heard the devil is in the details, and to achieve success, the goal is to eliminate that devil. For real estate professionals, these smaller details--like keeping address books synchronized--can become a large nuisance. To help with this, zipForm® Plus has integrated with Zapier. Zapier specializes in connecting web applications using 'If This, Then That' automation. This enables anyone with basic knowledge of multiple applications to easily connect them by defining a trigger. Currently, 360+ of the most common applications are available to connect immediately in ways that can make you a champion of multi-tasking. zipForm® Plus has joined the large group of web applications that is ready to connect within a few steps. Some of the applications that are sure to be the staples of real estate professionals are LinkedIn, Twitter, Office 360, Gmail and Exchange. Just imagine the ability to add a contact to your Gmail account, then have that information delivered to your zipForm® Plus address book only saving it once. Each connection created is called a 'Zap' and creating these connections is simple. See some of the following 'Zaps' are waiting for you in Zapier today: If a new contact is added to zipForm® Plus, Then an invite is sent to connect on LinkedIn If a new contact is added to zipForm® Plus, Then add that contact to Contactually If a new contact is added to Gmail contacts, Then add the contact to the zipForm® Plus address book If a new contact is added to zipForm® Plus, Then create a Evernote note for that contact

How to Help Online Buyers Get the Most Out of Their Search (Without Sabotaging Your Business)
Real estate agents by nature don't deal well with change. When it comes to teaching our clients about how to do an online search for real estate, we feel like crawling under a rock and getting in the fetal position because it's scary to think they could look up a house on their own. You mean they don't need us to see what's on the market any more? It's 2014, folks. Let's teach our clients the right way to search for homes online and it might actually make our job easier. Don't worry; they'll still need you for many other things like, oh, I don't know, unlocking the front door so they can actually see it. The Challenge of Selling to Millennials One of the biggest hurdles companies are trying to figure out, no matter what they sell, is how to appeal to Gen Y. Gen Y, also referred to as the "Millennials," is defined as anyone born between 1982 and 1993 and is typically (and falsely) categorized as a generation that prefers renting over owning. According to a recent article on Inc.com, "Gen Y's annual spending will amount to approximately $2.45 trillion, escalating to $3.39 trillion by 2018—significantly eclipsing Baby Boomers in spending power." Now do you understand why companies are competing for their attention? Millennials understand the power of computers and they don't want/need to rely on a business or, in this case, a real estate agent, for everything. This is why they often look on their own at first, and when it's convenient for them, we step in. Should we cater to this as agents? Hint: The answer is YES.

7 Essential Tricks to Take Control of Your Online Reputation TODAY
Whether you like it or not, your real estate business has an online reputation. Surveys have found that trustworthiness and reputation are the two most important factors when homebuyers and sellers are looking for an agent. If your online reputation isn't perfect, you will lose business. Here are 7 simple tricks to ensure that your online reputation is helping you attract customers: 1. Audit Your Search Results 90% of home purchases start online and 93% of online research starts with a search engine. See what potential customers see by searching for your name and business on Google. If you don't show up in the search results, you'll need to create more content. If you find bad reviews, you'll need to address them. You can optimize your online presence but you have to start by finding out what needs to be fixed. 2. Set Up Google Alerts You should only have to audit yourself once. Set up Google Alerts for your name, business, and any other search query for which you want to show up in the results. Google Alerts will send you an email every time there is a new result for your chosen keywords.

Real Estate Prospect Leaving too Early? Bounce Rates for Your Real Estate Website
Let's Talk About Bounce Rate Do users make it to your Home Page and not use it all? Do they click on any of your listed properties or use your property search? Do users click on your About Us link in your email signature and leave your About US page immediately without browsing your real estate website? Do users go to your Realtor Profile page from your social media profile and leave immediately without contacting you? In our last Real Estate Digital Marketing post, I wrote of the importance of linking your Google Analytics Accounts with their respective AdWords accounts in the wake of Google rolling out their new Bulk Importing feature that makes it easier to link multiple accounts. In doing so, I touched on a few of the important metrics that are pulled into AdWords after linking: Bounce Rate, Pages per Visit, Average Visit Duration, and Percent of New Visits. These metrics allow you to see how users are interacting with your website and are therefore worth going over individually. The time, effort and dollars associated with getting potential buyers and seller to visit your real estate website is all for nothing if visitors aren't actually using your webpage! Bounce Rate Defined Google defines it as the "percentage of single-page sessions." The lower the better!

Google Trends in Real Estate Digital Marketing
What is Google Trends? Even many digital marketers aren't too familiar with Google Trends. Google Trends, formerly "Google Insights for Search," allows users to see the latest and hottest topics that people are currently searching for. Additionally, and more importantly for the advertiser, Google provides access to historical search data collected since 2004! Google Trends is a free tool for any user available at http://www.google.com/trends/. At the moment of writing this article, the Google Trends homepage shows me that the Galaxy S5 and The Voice are "Trending Now" and what states search for LeBron James the most. While that may be interesting to some, how does this help the advertiser? In a recent Google Partner discussion from February 12, 2014, Google showcased some of Google Trends' "cool little features," with more forthcoming. We can see that information presented by Google Trends may be amusing or "cool," but does Google Trends have any use for the advertiser or real estate digital marketing analyst? It certainly does! Application for The Real Estate Agent The most beneficial feature for the advertiser is the Search Term Comparison Tool, in which one can see the interest over time in a search term. Let's explore how this is useful for the real estate agent and digital marketing analyst using a sample search term of "Atlanta Homes for Sale."

Free .realtor Domains Available To NAR and CREA Members Soon
If you're a member of NAR, you will soon have the option of grabbing a free .realtor website domain from the organization. These new addresses should be available to members by the end of September. Back in 2012, the trade group applied to ICANN (Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers) to create and manage the .realtor top level domain. Now NAR has officially signed the contract that will enable them to launch signups for the new domains. They expect to be able to start offering their members access to these new domains by the end of the current quarter, which ends September 30th. NAR is offering an introductory deal for its members--a free .realtor domain for one year to the first 500,000 people who register. NAR's Canadian counterpart CREA will be offering 10,000 free .realtor domains to their members, as well. Single year registration will regularly cost $39.95 with discounts for registering for multiple years. GTLD Domains Are New Territory These new domains will definitely be of interest to agents looking to brand themselves in the online world as a Realtor. It will do a pretty good job of telling your prospective clients what you do just from reading your URL, though it will take some time. Generic Top Level Domains are a new concept for the public, so to a certain point it will take a bit of getting used to for the average user. In time they'll understand that all these URLs, like .coffee, .technology, .email or .photography will work just the same as the tried and true .com, .ca and .net, but there will be an adjustment period of these domains become more common.

What's a DDoS Attack?
Realtor.com's website has been down since midday Tuesday (update: the site is back online), along with other Move services like Top Producer. In a statement, the company identified a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack as the reason for the outage. The attack against Move's web properties is the latest in a string of recent DDoS attacks across the Internet. Ancestry.com was also down Wednesday. The World Cup website, along with RSS reader Feedly and Realtor-favorite Evernote were targets of DDoS attacks last week. Attack of the Zombie Computers! So what is a DDoS attack, anyway? It's a tactic that malicious hackers use to take down a website or network by overwhelming it with a high volume of traffic. Think of it as a mass stampede of thousands or millions of computers all trying to access a site at the same time. It's called a Distributed Denial of Service attack because the intent is to deny legitimate users from accessing a website, therefore crippling a business for the duration of the attack. Banks, media, and other major sites are frequent targets of DDoS takedowns. Hackers use something called a "botnet" to execute DDoS attacks. A botnet is a network of linked computers that are used collectively to pummel a target's server. These computers often belong to regular home or business users, but have been infected by a virus or malware. Once infected, hackers can control these computers remotely and use them to attack a website.

7 Tools For Working With Clients Remotely
Have you ever had to work with an out-of-town client? If you have, no doubt you've thanked your lucky stars for digital tools like digital signatures and transaction management software. Sometimes, however, your buyer or seller may need a more personal touch. So what's a far-away agent to do? Consider looking into web meeting applications. Most solutions will let you share your computer screen with clients, or chat face-to-face using a webcam. You can use these programs to review documents in real-time with clients, or simply to add a human touch that remote digital transactions can sometimes lack. There are a variety of different web meeting apps on the market, both free and paid. We've rounded up a few of our favorites below. To Download or Not to Download? That is the question and, next to price, it's probably the biggest consideration when choosing the right meeting app for you. Web meeting apps come in two flavors: those that require you to download and install software before joining or hosting a meeting, and those that work right in your browser, no installation required. Those that require installation typically offer more robust features, like the ability to record a session. However, if those features are not important to you, browser-based apps may be the way to go. GoToMeeting - If you've ever attended one of RE Technology's webinars (or most of these), you're already familiar with this program. GoToMeeting is one of the most widely used online collaboration tools. It offers desktop sharing, high-def video conferencing, the ability to record sessions, and more. The program requires software installation and a monthly subscription fee. However, there is a new free version with fewer features and no installation required. This version only works in Google Chrome for up to three participants.

Are You a Spammer and Don’t Realize It?
When someone mentions email spammers, do you picture sleazy con artists selling Viagra, get-rich-quick schemes and match-making services? You certainly don't picture yourself, do you? But if you're not careful about the marketing emails you send out, you could end up being labeled a spammer. All it takes to be pegged as a spammer is a single person who responds to your marketing newsletter by clicking the "spam" button in their email menu. At best, a "spam" click dumps all future emails from you into the person's trash can. At worst, you collect enough spam reports to inspire an Internet Service Provider (think Yahoo, Gmail or Comcast) to block emails from you to their customers. To avoid picking up a reputation as a spammer, follow these five tips: 1. Make it easy to opt-out of your e-newsletter Yes, you read that right. You want it to be just as easy to leave your email list as it is to click the "spam" button. If your clients aren't enjoying your e-newsletter, you need to find one they do like. At HomeActions, we include an unsubscribe button at the end of every email. The unsubscribe button isn't just good marketing, it's also legally required by the federal CAN-SPAM law for most commercial emails.

Managing Your Personal Online Presence: A Guide For Real Estate Agents
As a real estate professional, how you present yourself is paramount to your success in the industry. While you often hear about employers doing background checks on potential job applicants, your real estate clients are doing the same to you. They want to know that you’re a good person to do business with and are doing their homework on who you are, using search engines. When someone looks you up online, do you know what they will find? Spring Cleaning For Your Online Presence Google Yourself Try running a simple search in Google and Bing search engines and see what shows up. Maybe you’re fortunate and have a unique name that makes it easy to find you. If you’re like me and have a really common name use a search query, like Jane Jones + Columbus OH or Jane Jones + Awesome Realty + Columbus OH to specifically target you and your real estate business. Do you get search results that pertain to you? If you do have a common name, you may find there there are online twins that share your name and live in the same area as you. Take Notes Make a spreadsheet of what you find, categorizing the Good (leave as is), Neutral (ignore or not worth bothering with) and Bad (action required), among the search results you find. The goal here is to create an actionable list to address any blemishes you might find when you search your name.